Frogspawn Swamp I was the lightning before the thunder

She was out for the purposes of helping to recruit when the rain started, and she cursed as it began to pour.  The ground she was walking on was unpleasant enough as is... the boggy soil would only get worse in this.

She darted under a nearby stand of trees and stared up, hear ears sliding sideways as the raindrops dripped (albeit with less frequency) on her back and head.  Not only was it rain, but it was one of those unpleasantly chilly ones that gets under the fur and sends shivers down the spine.  She could already feel herself shaking.  Maybe it was time to head home, though she'd wait until it lightened up a bit first.

For now she sat, gazing at the dark clouds and the trees swaying in the increasing wind.

Evening had never been in a swamp before, and she half-hated it. Her paws were soaking and freezing, and they were only getting colder as dusk slowly turned to night. Still though, she thought perhaps that with this thick tree life, she might be able to come out even during the day. The thought excited her, but she couldn’t focus on that now. Normally, she would spend this time attempting to hunt, but she had the feeling she’d go hungry ’til the next sundown. It was beginning to storm and all she wanted to do was curl up in a cave or some animal’s den and sleep ’til it went away… if it ever went away.

She was so distracted by the weather that she did not notice that there was another wolf here. She had begun to move faster, the storm giving her a sense of urgency, and she nearly ran right into the woman. She gasped at the shape that appeared in front of her and stopped dead, maybe a foot away. In the dark, with the wind howling all around, Evening stared at the wolf in dread. “Are you a ghost?” she whispered. The wind snatched the whisper away so that the woman may or may not have heard it. Evening was frozen to the spot, staring with wide eyes at who she was beginning to imagine, in this terrible, frightening weather, might be some kind of swamp monster, or other impossible creature.

She did not hear.... but she saw.  The other wolf seemed to materialize from the gloom, coming through the rain as well, and Roz wondered what another was doing in this miserable spot.  She hadn't expected to see anyone here.  She did not come close before appearing to freeze.  Was something else here?

Her ear flicked, and she glanced behind.  Nothing.  What was her deal?  Perhaps she thought the other woman was a threat, but Rosalyn wasn't much feeling a scuffle in this gross setting.  Or, yknow, because there was nothing worth scuffling over.

"Oi.  You can keep out there gettin wet, or you can come where it's a bit better at least."  She called out somewhat softly, not much wanting to break the depressive silence of the bog.  It seemed wrong for some reason.

Evening saw the woman turn to look over her shoulder, as if expecting to see someone standing there. Still a little frightened despite herself, she found that she too was looking over the woman’s shoulder, half expecting to see a real monster coming towards them out of the gloom. But there was nothing there… Oh. Had the woman thought she was looking at someone behind her. Well… That made Evening feel a bit better, if it was true. But when the other wolf spoke, somewhat loudly over the wind, Evening couldn’t help but jump, and then give an embarrassed, nervous laugh. “O-oh,” she said, wondering if she should accept that offer.

She glanced around, shivered in the rain, watched the trees swaying in the moaning wind, and decided that she’d much rather be under the copse of trees than not. She, too, darted beneath them, shaking herself as she did so and probably accidentally spraying the woman with water. She immediately realized her mistake and flinched as if being physically threatened. “Oh, I’m sorry!” she cried. “You can— uhh… shake out your fur on me as payback if you want.” It was a lame thing to say, but it was the only thing she could think of to make up for getting cold water all over this woman she didn’t know. So far, this whole meeting was going rather terribly.

The girl accepted, though hesitantly, but then proceeded to shake herself.  The spray caught Rosalyn across her face and shoulders, and her expression went -_- for a moment before she recovered and chuckled good-naturedly.  "Nasty out there, eh? It isn't a whole lot better down here, but least the rain's less.  What are you doin ghostin about a swamp?" She asked, unknowingly using the very term she'd applied to herself only a few moments before.  It was accurate though... she'd basically materialized from the gloom after all.

Evening breathed a sigh of relief when the woman didn’t seem to care at all that she’d been sprayed with water. Besides, in reality it wasn’t making much of a difference, probably. This copse of trees were protecting them from some of the rainfall, but they were still getting rained on. What they really needed was a burrow somewhere, or a cave, or a rock outcrop. But this was a swamp. Evening had to assume that caves and outcrops were a no-go, and she figured holing up in the ground while it was raining would probably not help much. She imagined all the little snake and rabbit holes were filling with water right now.

She was brought out of her string of thoughts by the woman’s voice asking why she was hanging around a swamp. “I…” Evening wasn’t sure how to answer that. It was dark and she wasn’t sure how much of her coloration the other wolf could see. “I… have a condition,” she finally admitted, not seeing why she should lie to this wolf. “I can’t really go out in the sunlight because I sunburn really easily and I can’t see very clearly. The sun makes my eyes hurt and my vision blurry. So I mainly stick around forests or other shaded areas so that I have somewhere to hide during the day.” She had been about to continue, to tell this woman about how she had run away, how her family had treated her, how she didn’t know how to hunt big game, but she shut her mouth quickly. This woman she hardly knew did not need to hear her life’s story.

Rosalyn had briefly considered seeing if this girl had in her what it took to be a pirate... but the initial feel of the conversation, and her admittance, made that a moot point.  Still, not recruiting didn't mean they couldn't chat.

"That sounds fair inconvenient.  Ye always have it?"  Or was it contagious? Because if she gave it to Rosalyn, the woman would be fair miffed.  Her gaze turned a tad wary at the thought.

I got really inspired so have a long post.

Evening looked away when the woman commented on her condition, asking if she’d always had it. Talking about her affliction with someone outside of her family made her feel awkward and upset. She had run away from home so that she could stop feeling like she had to prove herself to her family, but now she was out here in the middle of nowhere, talking to a woman she didn’t know, feeling as if she had to prove herself to a stranger. It disappointed her, and she couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her maw. Was she destined to forever avoid company, lest she feel weak in front of other wolves?

Finally, she responded to the woman, but still kept her head turned away to avoid having to look at her. “Yes, I’ve always had it. I was born with it. My mother thought I was special or something and named me Flower.” Her voice took on a note of disgust at the name. “I was coddled by her. My father, on the other hand, saw my condition for what it was — something that made me weak and a liability to the pack. He pushed me harder than any of my siblings, made me train twice as hard, but I was never good enough for him. And my siblings!” Evening raised her head and glared out at the rain as if she could see her family staring back at her. “My siblings treated me like I was some diseased little whelp. Some treated me as Mother did, coddling me like a child even as I grew older, and others took Father’s point of view, except to an extreme, and avoided me like the plague.”

The wraith snorted, now too angry to have any room leftover for feelings of shame. “Forget them,” she muttered bitterly. “They’re the reason I’m here now, out in this swamp in the rain. I ran away from home. I don’t need them. I don’t need anyone. I can survive on my own, no matter what they think.” At this point, she had forgotten that there was another wolf sitting beside her. She was in her head, talking to herself, resentful and indignant and stubborn. She sat hunched over, staring into nothingness, and her will to survive turned her bones to steel.

When Roz asked, she hadn't realized she was inviting herself to the girl's life story.  She opened her mouth to stop her, then closed it.... what better did she have to do? They were stuck in the rain.

She listened as she detailed life with her family.  It was a life Rosalyn couldn't relate to... she'd never known her father, nor really her siblings, well enough to feel that competition.  And obviously, if her mother had thought her a flower, it hadn't been as her flower.  That thought almost made her chuckle out loud, but she suppressed it in time.  Didn't really fit the mood.

"And all that's.... bad?" She asked, honestly a little confused.  "I mean, the avoiding sounds terrible.  But the support and the pushing... isn't that what ye want?  In some measure."  She shrugged.  "I'm no expert in family affairs, but sounds to me that ye got the right idea outta it."    Stand on your own, don't expect anything from anyone else, and that's how you get through alone.

Evening glared at the woman out of the corner of her eye and sighed. “Look, you just don’t get it. You didn’t grow up with them. I don’t care if my dad was trying to teach me stuff or not. He was still a terrible father. And my mom! Ugh! Being treated like a delicate little flower was no better than being pushed to the brink of insanity. None of them just let me be me!” She huffed, staring out at the rain again. “So what if I can’t hunt deer? I’ve become great at hunting smaller prey because of it! That’s still an asset to the pack, isn’t it? Being able to hunt the smaller prey? Besides, that’s what all pups start out hunting anyways.”

Now she was mostly just rambling, still angry and fired up from bringing up her past in so detailed a manner. “Anyways, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’d rather die out here on my own than join anymore packs.” She meant it, too, and that sentiment might end up being the death of her.

There wasn't going to be any arguing with the girl.... obviously the grass wasn't greener on the other side, though Rosalyn still felt she was slightly more spoiled teen than seriously wronged party.  Never 'let me be me'?  Who but you could ever let you be you?

"Yeah, I'm sure you were a huge asset." She said complacently, but with a spark of mirth in her eyes.  "And hey, seems like you got a plan?  So that's something."  Even if it was dying out here, which was an awful plan by most standards.

Evening couldn’t help but flash her pink eyes at the woman in anger for a moment. Her comment about the yearling being a “huge asset” stunk of sarcasm, whether it was actually intended or not, and Evening did not appreciate it. She’d felt, for a moment, as if they were maybe friends. Or something. And then the pirate had gone and said something like that. This now colored the rest of the woman’s words, twisting them into some kind of strange insult in Evening’s head. She looked out at the storm, glaring through the rain, trying to see if there was anywhere else she could go that would far away from this woman.

Suddenly, and with all the teenage angst she could muster into one word, she said, “Whatever,” and flung herself out into the rain, running blindly and hoping she wouldn’t be followed.

Exit! Figured this had dragged out long enough, heh. I had fun! <3

same!!! XD

She did not seem to like Rosalyn's remarks, growing visibly agitated and then leaving with a huff.  Rosalyn took a step forward and watched her disappear in the rain, then gave a light chuckle.  The woman wasn't crew, so she wasn't terribly inclined to worry after her fate, and compassion only struck sometimes.  

Well, if she wanted to get wet, Rosalyn definitely wasn't following.  She hunkered down in the newfound quiet and waited for the rain to lessen, enjoying the rhythmic peace of the drops.